Fired Fort Oglethorpe city manager says there were no lies
Sunday March 25, 2007 7:22:36pm
Fired Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Jim Dinley says he believes he can still do a good job for the city if the council votes on Tuesday to reinstate him.
His public hearing is at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Dinley appealed his March 12 firing on March 15, and the council must still adopt a final resolution to dismiss him before his firing becomes permanent. He said a decision to rehire him wouldn’t change the fact that some of the council has historically disliked him, but he would still be professional toward everyone.
“I would continue doing the same job that I’m doing now,” he said.
Dinley was fired in a 4 to 1 vote for allegedly giving misleading and inconsistent statements in a criminal investigation that involved other council members and the mayor. The extortion case against council member Richard Egeland’s wife, Wanda, was dismissed before it ever went to trial based on insufficient evidence from Dinley’s testimony, according to court documents.
Dinley witnessed a conversation in which Wanda Egeland called Mayor Judd Burkhart and allegedly asked him to get council member Jane Moye to dismiss a separate case against her.
According to Dinley’s statement to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in January 2006, Wanda Egeland also told the mayor he should give her $5,000 for attorney’s fees. She threatened to tell the news media he had sexually harassed her and had a “hit list” of people he wanted to fire if he didn’t comply with her wishes, according to Dinley’s statement to the GBI.
Dinley later said in a letter to Richard Egeland, which was introduced as evidence along with his statement to the GBI, that he didn’t interpret Wanda Egeland’s comments as extortion.
Dinley says his statements aren’t inconsistent. He said his statement to the GBI was a factual account of what he witnessed between Egeland and Burkhart while his letter was a personal opinion of what Egeland’s comments meant.
He said he never told the GBI he believed Egeland had committed extortion.
Council members contacted after Dinley’s firing said they were willing to give attention to Dinley’s appeal. Steve Brandon said he did not hear Dinley’s side of the story before the vote.
“I based my decision on evidence placed in front of me,” he said, adding that Dinley’s full story will have a chance to come out in the public hearing.
Conflicts of interest?
Wanda Egeland’s call to Burkhart last year stemmed from a 2005 altercation in which she went to Councilwoman Jane Moye’s workplace where she threw candy at her, destroyed an audiotape and accused her of having an affair with Richard Egeland.
On March 9, the same day the extortion case was dropped, Wanda Egeland pleaded guilty to simple battery in the incident. She received one year probation, a $1,200 fine and was told to have no contact with Moye and to undergo psychiatric evaluations and recommended treatment.
Only three council members were not involved at all in either of the two court cases — Brandon, Louis Hamm and Harold Silcox — all of whom voted to fire Dinley.
Egeland said at the meeting in which Dinley was fired that the decision was personal, intended as payback for the fact Dinley didn’t testify in a way that helped the mayor, who was a litigant in the extortion case against his wife.
“They couldn’t take it out on her so they’re going to take it out on the city manager,” Egeland said at the meeting. “The city manager didn’t do anything but tell the truth.”
Asked about his alleged involvement in Dinley’s dismissal, Burkhart said he wouldn’t comment until after the hearing. While all of the hiring and firing decisions made on city managers and police chiefs in the past three years have had his backing, Burkhart said he has no power to make those decisions himself.
“I don’t get involved at all unless they ask me,” he said.
Egeland said Moye shouldn’t have voted on Dinley’s dismissal because she was a litigant in the case involving his wife. Yet he also said a lawyer he spoke with about another issue after the vote said that he shouldn’t have voted because he was involved.
Goulart, who was also a witness in the extortion case, said he could see the potential for conflict in Egeland voting since he was the recipient of the letter used in evidence. However, the attorney also said he wouldn’t suggest Egeland shouldn’t have voted.
“If he feels comfortable saying (he can vote fairly)…then so be it,” Goulart said. “I take his word for it.”
Moye, who made the motion to fire Dinley, said there was no conflict for her in the vote because the extortion and battery cases were separate.
“It has nothing to do with (being) personal,” she said of Dinley’s firing. “…I have nothing to do with this (extortion) case.”
City attorney as manager
Goulart said he was not given any additional compensation when he was named by consensus during executive session before Dinley’s firing to take over some of the city manager’s duties until an interim manager could be appointed.
Egeland said he was escorted out of the room under police guard along with Dinley while the firing was being discussed in the closed meeting. During the time he was out, the rest of the council decided to have Goulart take over some of those duties, officials said.
Egeland said he learned of the decision after the meeting had already adjourned.
Goulart said a better move would have been to go ahead and officially appoint him as interim city manager in a vote, but “arguably you could have done it either way.”
Goulart said his tasks have included communicating with department heads, representing the city in discussions about the West Chickamauga sewer interceptor project as well as attending to his usual attorney duties. He said he has not been authorized to sign paychecks, something the city manager normally does along with one other person.
“I’m not doing anything I don’t feel comfortable doing,” he said.
Goulart said he has no intention of becoming a permanent city manager and wouldn’t even want the interim job for very long. Simultaneously trying cases for the city and supervising city departments isn’t a job he would want, he said.
He represents the city in another case a former city employee filed against Burkhart. That case has yet to come before the court.
Goulart said he has been Fort Oglethorpe’s attorney “off and on” since 1980. He was also a city judge in Ringgold for 20 years and spent six years as a juvenile court judge.
City officials had discussed the possibility of voting on an interim manager at the Monday, March 26 meeting.
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His public hearing is at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Dinley appealed his March 12 firing on March 15, and the council must still adopt a final resolution to dismiss him before his firing becomes permanent. He said a decision to rehire him wouldn’t change the fact that some of the council has historically disliked him, but he would still be professional toward everyone.
“I would continue doing the same job that I’m doing now,” he said.
Dinley was fired in a 4 to 1 vote for allegedly giving misleading and inconsistent statements in a criminal investigation that involved other council members and the mayor. The extortion case against council member Richard Egeland’s wife, Wanda, was dismissed before it ever went to trial based on insufficient evidence from Dinley’s testimony, according to court documents.
Dinley witnessed a conversation in which Wanda Egeland called Mayor Judd Burkhart and allegedly asked him to get council member Jane Moye to dismiss a separate case against her.
According to Dinley’s statement to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in January 2006, Wanda Egeland also told the mayor he should give her $5,000 for attorney’s fees. She threatened to tell the news media he had sexually harassed her and had a “hit list” of people he wanted to fire if he didn’t comply with her wishes, according to Dinley’s statement to the GBI.
Dinley later said in a letter to Richard Egeland, which was introduced as evidence along with his statement to the GBI, that he didn’t interpret Wanda Egeland’s comments as extortion.
Dinley says his statements aren’t inconsistent. He said his statement to the GBI was a factual account of what he witnessed between Egeland and Burkhart while his letter was a personal opinion of what Egeland’s comments meant.
He said he never told the GBI he believed Egeland had committed extortion.
Council members contacted after Dinley’s firing said they were willing to give attention to Dinley’s appeal. Steve Brandon said he did not hear Dinley’s side of the story before the vote.
“I based my decision on evidence placed in front of me,” he said, adding that Dinley’s full story will have a chance to come out in the public hearing.
Conflicts of interest?
Wanda Egeland’s call to Burkhart last year stemmed from a 2005 altercation in which she went to Councilwoman Jane Moye’s workplace where she threw candy at her, destroyed an audiotape and accused her of having an affair with Richard Egeland.
On March 9, the same day the extortion case was dropped, Wanda Egeland pleaded guilty to simple battery in the incident. She received one year probation, a $1,200 fine and was told to have no contact with Moye and to undergo psychiatric evaluations and recommended treatment.
Only three council members were not involved at all in either of the two court cases — Brandon, Louis Hamm and Harold Silcox — all of whom voted to fire Dinley.
Egeland said at the meeting in which Dinley was fired that the decision was personal, intended as payback for the fact Dinley didn’t testify in a way that helped the mayor, who was a litigant in the extortion case against his wife.
“They couldn’t take it out on her so they’re going to take it out on the city manager,” Egeland said at the meeting. “The city manager didn’t do anything but tell the truth.”
Asked about his alleged involvement in Dinley’s dismissal, Burkhart said he wouldn’t comment until after the hearing. While all of the hiring and firing decisions made on city managers and police chiefs in the past three years have had his backing, Burkhart said he has no power to make those decisions himself.
“I don’t get involved at all unless they ask me,” he said.
Egeland said Moye shouldn’t have voted on Dinley’s dismissal because she was a litigant in the case involving his wife. Yet he also said a lawyer he spoke with about another issue after the vote said that he shouldn’t have voted because he was involved.
Goulart, who was also a witness in the extortion case, said he could see the potential for conflict in Egeland voting since he was the recipient of the letter used in evidence. However, the attorney also said he wouldn’t suggest Egeland shouldn’t have voted.
“If he feels comfortable saying (he can vote fairly)…then so be it,” Goulart said. “I take his word for it.”
Moye, who made the motion to fire Dinley, said there was no conflict for her in the vote because the extortion and battery cases were separate.
“It has nothing to do with (being) personal,” she said of Dinley’s firing. “…I have nothing to do with this (extortion) case.”
City attorney as manager
Goulart said he was not given any additional compensation when he was named by consensus during executive session before Dinley’s firing to take over some of the city manager’s duties until an interim manager could be appointed.
Egeland said he was escorted out of the room under police guard along with Dinley while the firing was being discussed in the closed meeting. During the time he was out, the rest of the council decided to have Goulart take over some of those duties, officials said.
Egeland said he learned of the decision after the meeting had already adjourned.
Goulart said a better move would have been to go ahead and officially appoint him as interim city manager in a vote, but “arguably you could have done it either way.”
Goulart said his tasks have included communicating with department heads, representing the city in discussions about the West Chickamauga sewer interceptor project as well as attending to his usual attorney duties. He said he has not been authorized to sign paychecks, something the city manager normally does along with one other person.
“I’m not doing anything I don’t feel comfortable doing,” he said.
Goulart said he has no intention of becoming a permanent city manager and wouldn’t even want the interim job for very long. Simultaneously trying cases for the city and supervising city departments isn’t a job he would want, he said.
He represents the city in another case a former city employee filed against Burkhart. That case has yet to come before the court.
Goulart said he has been Fort Oglethorpe’s attorney “off and on” since 1980. He was also a city judge in Ringgold for 20 years and spent six years as a juvenile court judge.
City officials had discussed the possibility of voting on an interim manager at the Monday, March 26 meeting.
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WatchtowerComments: 20 Joined: 03/15/2007 |
03/29/2007 01:55:08 PM
The city will end up giving him severance pay or else they will face a yet another lawsuit. It seems as though the taxpayers are once again paying the price for an incompetent council. It seems to me that this group has done more for themselves than the city of Fort Oglethorpe. How much land does the mayor own off of Cloud Springs Rd? |
ringgoldoneComments: 532 Joined: 07/24/2006 |
03/28/2007 11:35:33 AM
If there were other legitimate reasons for Dinley's dismissal, why have we not heard what they are? I fear a lawsuit is forthcoming, and Dinley will win if they don't settle out of court.Another great show of leadership! |
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ringgoldone Comments: 532 Joined: 07/24/2006 |
03/27/2007 12:41:04 PM
Start in November with a new mayor and 2 new council persons - BUT PLEASE - no one from the past or connected to anyone from the past. Otherwise, the circus will continue. |
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Watchtower Comments: 20 Joined: 03/15/2007 |
03/27/2007 09:16:03 AM
Whats it been, 7 City Managers in 7 years? Fort Oglethorpe needs someone he can unite the Mayor, council members and city employees. I think its time for change in F.O. I would like to see 5 new council members and a new mayor. Enough of this embarrassing nonsense. |
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Comments: 132
Joined: 10/09/2006
Obviously, what you have here is a case of insecurity. Jim Dinley, a retired United States Air Force Colonel, who holds a bachelors degree in marketing and a masters degree in education, obviously makes some of the elected officials in Fort Oglethorpe as well as a small group of uneducated trouble-makers who continuously try to influence the election process feel insecure and/or intimidated.
This small group of uneducated trouble-makers could not influence Mr. Dinley into becoming one of their puppets, as they have 4 of the 6 elected bodies that sit behind the council desk, so they chose to get two of their own (who claimed to be "Christians" and "men of God") elected in the last election. These two "men of God" got elected with a vendetta to fire Jim Dinley and Chief Larry Black. Hardly an unforgiving Christian intention. The sad part is that the voters fell for it.
Jim Dinley and Larry Black are very competent men of character. They each present an air of intelligence and professionalism the City of Fort Oglethorpe needs.
It is a sad day when intelligence, professionalism, character, and competence gets defeated by ignorance. But that is exactly what happened on Tuesday night, March 27, 2007, in the City of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.